Day 1

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Hi.

Wifi wasn't working very well last night or this morning, so this update will cover the last two days.

We flew into Balantyre yesterday from Joburg. While not the capital of Malawi, Blantyre is the financial centre of Malawi. About 1m people live here. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I was surprised when we landed. The airport itself is very basic - walk in from the runway to a large shed like structure. No aircon and a very old conveyer belt for luggage (I felt sorry for the people who had fragile stickers on their luggage - 2 of the bags marked that way fell off the conveyer belt while I was watching them get loaded on!). It took us a while to get through customs as the scanners weren't working, but we eventually got through. The customs officer spoke English really well, so while I was being processed he asked a lot of questions about Australia - was it easy to get in, what was education like and how far away it was. The people generally are very friendly which, despite the language barrier makes it reasonably easy to feel at ease although we were warned not to go out after 5.

The ride into Blantyre CBD was eye opening. It's very dry at the moment and it makes the city feel a bit harsh. The houses and businesses were very basic - a sign you're doing well here is to have a tin roof. There weren't a lot of them we saw on the journey in And many of the businesses were tiny rooms - no bigger than an average size kitchen. There were a lot of churches though - and so many people in them. mostly Christian churches, although there were a few denominations I didn't recognise! There were lots of people walking on the roads - the transport network is basic and only a small percentage of people own cars, so most people walk to get places. One lady I saw was carrying 4 trays of eggs on her head! Amazing balance! More sadly, there were kids who wouldn't have been more than 6 or 7 carrying large buckets to the local stream to fill. Only 11 percent of people here have access to electricity and I'm assuming roughly the same amount for running water. It certainly puts things in perspective - and makes you realise how much we take for granted.

Our hotel is like an oasis in the city. Old colonial style. We reached it on Saturday afternoon, and then the group had dinner. Today was a leadership immersion workshop - to talk about what we want to achieve from the week, followed by a 3 hour presentation from THP country director - who grew up in a village like the ones we will visit. His story is very inspiring - to grow up in poverty, one of 9 kids - becoming educated through scholarships and then working for an organisation to help people who are facing the same challenges he faced. He gave us an overview of the culture and THP work here, to help prepare us for the week. It was a really long day though - hence I'm writing this at 8pm local time and I'm ready to fall asleep!

We are off tomorrow to our first epicentre visit. Early start (7am). We will travel by bus a few hours to get there (it's remote) and then spend time during the day with the villagers, returning at about 6.30pm. I'll write my next update then (wifi permitting!)

Hope you're all well and off to a great start for the week.

I've attached a few photos of the journey in. If you can, zoom in on some of the shop names! I've also added a photo of what 100usd converts to in local dollars.

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